3.12.08

Funny Doesn't Belong There

I often find myself trying to come to terms with my love of rhetoric; to the point that I try to find traces of this love littered throughout my entire life's narrative. One such trace, I tell myself, is my lifelong love of the cover song and the remix. Since I was a kid, I have always enjoyed the playful cover or parody--like the Lemonhead's "My Name is Luka," Dynamic Hack's "Boyz in tha Hood," or even Alien Ant Farm's "Smooth Criminal."

So, I tell myself, this clearly expresses an early appreciation for the kairotic dimensions of context. I appreciate a playful re-appropriation. I also can appreciate it as a deconstructionist--something that alerts us to silent norms, to expectations. Such an alert must be respectful, even while playful. For instance: laughing at a funeral. The laugh at a funeral might defy social convention, but it does so (hopefully) as light-hearted remembrance and as painfully playful nostalgia. It manifests the often neglected cliche: a proper funeral celebrates a life rather than mourns a death. So, you can laugh at a funeral. You cannot order a pizza.

I think the playful cover song, one self-conscious of its recontextualization, represents this kind of properly un-kairotic laughter (to borrow DDD's term). This laughter attempts a self-consciousness tempered by obligation--to the original, to the moment, to something other. All this came to mind today thanks to Mxrk's sharing the Jim Lehrer piece:

5 comments:

Casey said...

I hope you've heard this weird song, then:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7kn45_beyonce-feat-rkelly-if-were-a-boy-r_music

Talk about missing an opportunity to pull off the funniest spoof since Al Yankovic's "Fat" spoof of Michael Jackson's "Bad." I think R. Kelly's being sorta serious here.

R. Kelly comes flopping in around 1:30.

Casey said...

This one's SOOOOooooo much better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kL4AKlKP9A

Insignificant Wrangler said...

To be honest, I'm not a straight-parody guy. Weird Al is funny, sure, but not really my thing. I am more interested in covers, remixes, that stay true to the original.

And I wouldn't classify Kelly as self-aware... of much of anything...

Insignificant Wrangler said...

Oh shit, I just used Tr*th in a comment addressed to Casey...

I have a feeling I haven't heard the end of this...

Casey said...

As long as you type tr-e, or show self-awareness by posting a follow-up, you're off the hook.

:)